Disposable absorbent articles, such as diapers, sanitary products, incontinent pads, and the like have obtained wide acceptance by consumers. Such absorbent articles generally include a liquid permeable sheet, a liquid impermeable sheet for preventing body exudates from leaking out, and an absorbent member interposed therebetween for absorbing such body exudates.
Conventional liquid impermeable sheets provide satisfactory liquid impermeablility. However, those sheets are not flexible enough to closely conform to the shape of wearer's body, and consequently provide poor leakage protection.
Various types of materials have been proposed for use in absorbent members and may have been put into actual practice. Furthermore, with progress of development work on superabsorbent material comprising polymeric material capable of absorbing more than ten times its weight of liquids, absorbent members incorporating such superabsorbent material have been widely utilized.
The absorbent members as have been already proposed or put into actual practice have a panel configuration for presenting a flat absorbent surface to be contacted by liquids over its entire area in an effort to obtain target liquid absorbency. Although such absorbent members provide satisfactory liquid absorbency, they are not flexible enough to conform to a wearer's body during their use. In particular, absorbent members incorporating superabsorbent material exhibit substantial increase in rigidity when the superabsorbent material absorbs liquids. This increase in rigidity of the absorbent members causes poor conformity thereof to the wearer's body, which leads to liquid leakage from the sides thereof.
The present invention provides a highly-functional absorbent article which is capable of absorbing a desirable amount of liquids, and is at the same time elastically stretchable and contractible to better conform to the wearer's body during use.